3 Times a Boynton

A couple years ago when our first (Sandra) "Boynton" cake order came in, we fell in love with the adorable characters. The fun loving party animals were perfectly suited for a birthday celebration and it made for a very cute cake. A year later we made another Boynton cake , this time the request was for a cake based on the book "Hippos Go Berserk" and we were again reminded, these guys can party! We're willing to write off the first two cakes as a mere coincidence that two people would ask for Boynton cakes, when, in the fifteen-plus years Rick has been making cakes in three different states, it wasn't until Hawaii that he made his first, second, and now third cake with the Boynton animals. His newest design is shown above and was made last weekend for Jake's birthday party. The wonderful thing about the Boynton animals apart from their being so-darn-cute, is that there are so darn many of them, and parents enjoy selecting their child's favorite. Each one we do a little differently, and it's always a surprise to the client. We adore their cute expressions and thank Sandra Boynton for giving us the creative inspiration, and our clients for sharing their child's favorite books with us!

See the other Boynton cakes, and many other children's cakes at cakelava.com.

Til next time, Aloha!

Rick and Eric's Birthday Cake

Thanks to everyone who left Birthday greetings on the blog and Facebook for Rick last week. He and his good friend Eric have birthdays one day apart and a small group of us celebrated both birthdays on Sunday night. Rick never makes a birthday cake for himself. He makes them for me each year and our family and friends, but for himself, he'd rather go with a restaurant's dessert or an ice cream cake, which he loves. This year he wanted to surprise Eric, who is an amazing poker player, with a cake. We're expecting to turn on the TV one of these days and see Eric on Face the Ace, so we knew exactly what type of cake he should have for his birthday, a stack of poker chips and cards. Eric loved his surprise and happily posed with his Peanut Butter Fudgey cake, and us gals got a great shot of the two of them blowing out their candles. Rick hammed it up in his usual way, while Eric chose the more dignified way of blowing out his candles. Happy 33rd birthday to Eric and Happy 41st to Rick! You two are Aces in our book!

Pink and Brown Wedding Cake, A Tall Order

The trend of late at cakelava HQ has been GRAND. Larger guest counts, taller cakes, and more artistically involved designs. In the past 2 weekends, we've made two 5-tier wedding cakes, both around 3 feet tall, and both all Real Cake. Why would you want it any other way? We typically don't include the "dummies" in our cakes, because we want the cake to be served and enjoyed. At Saturday night's pink and brown themed wedding for Teri and Robert, we were asked by one of the hotel staff, "which tiers are fake?" "None", we said, "All is to be served". We thought it a little odd that the assumption is that some tiers are fake, when pretty much the only time we'll use "dummy" tiers in our cake is for a press shoot. Teri and Robert's cake was a towering beauty in person. Their beautiful pink and chocolate brown cake perfectly matched the decor in the room. They were so smitten by it, that the groom came up to us while we were in the room and told us how much he loved it. It did definitely get a reaction from everyone who saw it, and knowing it was well appreciated meant we could finish our night off with a smile.

Congratulations to Teri and Robert!

Aloha til next time!

A Louis for Cherry

The tables have turned. When we first started making the Louis Vuitton purses, it was almost always women who inquired about them. See our previous post, the "Louis Vuitton Pavlovian Response" It makes sense. Few men would dare try and select a woman's handbag or shoes if they know what is good for them. However, an interesting phenomenon has occurred and our male clients are getting braver. 8 out of 10 calls we now receive for women's purses come from the men, and they all want their Louis'. Rick recently asked "why is it always Louis? There are so many other purses out there." He was asking this because the time involved in making these purses is higher than the non-monogrammed ones. They are handpainted with precision, front and back. I explained to him that women want the Louis. Yes, they want the Prada and the Chanel and the ... , but they always want the Louis. It means something to them. They've "arrived", or maybe are closer to arriving than before they owned a Louis.

Rick was working on another Louis shortly before I started this blog. Another husband wanting to surprise his wife with her favorite purse. He is very sweet and terribly excited about presenting his wife with her special cake. The newest Louis is different than Cherry's Louis, which is shown above. Cherry's Louis was also ordered for her by a man. He let Rick choose whatever style he wanted as long as it had the monogram. This one had buckles on the side, and I loved it as much as all the others he's made.

Come back next week to see some of our newest wedding and birthday cakes.
In the meantime, check out cakelava.com or join us on twitter.